Pages

Monday, January 26, 2015

Northern Shenandoah Valley Grazing Tour Planned for Late February

Virginia
Cooperative Extension is hosting a bus tour to see cow/calf operations in the
Piedmont that graze their livestock more than 300 days per year.The tour will take place on Thursday,
February 26 (with a snow date of February 27).Anyone wishing to attend should register in advance by February 20.There is a $20 registration fee which is due
in advance.Checks should be written to
“VCE-Shenandoah County” and mailed to VCE-Shenandoah County, 600 North Main
Street, Suite 100, Woodstock, VA 22664.For questions, call Extension Agents Bobby Clark (540-459-6140) or Corey
Childs (540-635-4549).

The tour
schedule is as follows:Thursday, February
26, 7:00 a.m., Bus departs Page Cooperative Farm Bureau in Luray, VA, for
Woodstock; 8:00 a.m., Bus departs the Shenandoah County Extension Office in
Woodstock, VA, for Front Royal; and 8:45 a.m., Bus departs from the Target
Parking Lot in Front Royal, VA, for Piedmont. Our first stop is the Jay Marshall Farm near
Marshall, VA.Mr. Marshall runs a 100
head cow/calf operation on about 200 acres.He has a single herd of cattle with both spring and fall calving
cows.Mr. Marshall does not always achieve
300 grazing days per year but he has occasionally.He does not supplement any grain to his
cattle.The second tour stop will be
Carl Stafford’s Farm near Brightwood, VA.Mr. Stafford runs 30 cow/calf pair on 100 acres.For the past decade, Mr. Stafford has fed
less than 30 round bales of hay to his herd.Many winters he has fed no hay and no grain.During the tour we will discuss how these
farmers extend their grazing season, look at the cattle herds, discuss
reproductive efficiency, weaning weights, replacement heifers, grazing systems,
fertility programs, cost of hay, and related topics.We will also discuss a few other operations
that have successful cow/calf herds and graze more than 300 days per year.Lunch and refreshments will be provided on
the tour.

There are
48,000 head of beef cows located on 1,574 farms in the Northern Shenandoah
Valley.On average, cattlemen graze
these cattle about 230 days per year and feed hay (or haylage or corn silage
the remaining 135 days). Technologies exist that extend the grazing season to
300 days or more.Extending the grazing
season would reduce the farmer’s cost of producing, harvesting, and feeding
hay.In addition, grazeable forage is
typically better quality than hay.Thus,
grazing cattle typically need fewer supplements than cattle eating hay.Other benefits include more uniform
distribution of farm nutrients, reduced damaged areas (due to hay feeding), and
improved water quality.

Extending
the grazing season will not fit every farm in the Northern Shenandoah
Valley.For example, a longstanding
farmer that has 100 cows on 175 acres and has 250 acres of row crops, custom
bales hay, and plows snow for VDOT might need to reduce their herd size (and
gross revenue from cattle sales) by 25 to 35 percent to achieve 300+ days of
grazing with little reduction in fixed cost.However, a beginning farmer with access to 100 acres of grazing land may
have a different economic outlook.The
current high prices of cattle also likely make owning a few more cows more
profitable even if a farmer needs to purchase a significant amount of hay.However, these high prices will not last
forever.

We
estimate that at least 20 percent of the cow/calf farms in the Northern
Shenandoah Valley could increase their profitability by about $25 per head by
extending their grazing season to 300 days.This would improve net farm income on these farms about $240,000 per
year.

If you
are a person with a disability and desire any assistive devices, services, or
other accommodations to participate in this activity, please contact Robert A.
Clark, Senior Extension Agent, Agriculture and Natural Resources, at the
Shenandoah County Office of Virginia Cooperative Extension at 540-459-6140/TDD*
during business hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to discuss accommodations five
days prior to the event.*TDD number is
800-828-1120.

1 comment:

There are many factors which influenced the development of Farming Machinery. Indispensable to homosapians today, it is yet to receive proper recognition for laying the foundations of democracy. Since it was first compared to antidisestablishmentarianism much has been said concerning Farming Machinery by those most reliant on technology, whom I can say no more about due to legal restrictions. In the light of this I will break down the issues in order to give each of them the thought that they fully deserve

Follow on Twitter

We provide education through programs in Agriculture and Natural Resources, Family and Consumer Sciences, 4-H Youth Development, and Community Viability.

Virginia Cooperative Extension programs and employment are open to all, regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. An equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.